During a House Appropriations Committee hearing earlier this month, Rep. Ashely Hinson (R-IA) spoke about warning systems in the case of extreme weather events.
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NewsTranscript
00:00 >> We are very proud of Ms. Caitlin Clark from Iowa.
00:04 She is up to the game, so to speak, around women's sports.
00:07 So we love Caitlin and the entire team.
00:10 They've done an amazing job.
00:11 And Lisa Bluter is a great coach, too.
00:13 We want to flag all those great women.
00:16 Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today and to Mr. Acquier as well for
00:20 your comments.
00:21 Administrator Criswell, it's great to see you again.
00:23 Thank you so much for being with us today.
00:26 Last year, I believe I flagged for you the challenges surrounding building codes for
00:30 the competitive BRIC grant process and kind of how that put states like Iowa kind of on
00:36 the back burner in terms of being competitive for those grants.
00:38 So I just wanted to tell you straight off the bat, I appreciate you working with my
00:41 office and my team on that to help make that process better in terms of eligibility and
00:47 removing those building code requirements will enable Iowa to be more competitive for
00:53 those grants.
00:54 So I appreciate you working with our team on that.
00:57 And I know FEMA recently migrated to a new payment system for states and localities,
01:01 FEMA GO.
01:02 And while commonality within grant management system I think is a good step forward for
01:07 the agency to better streamline, I just want to make sure that we're prioritizing working
01:10 through some of the bugs in the system.
01:11 And there's one specifically from Iowa that I wanted to highlight from 2022.
01:16 Iowa Homeland Security Emergency Management mistakenly overdrew 40 cents on a grant.
01:22 So very, very small amount.
01:24 And normally they would do an offset on a future draw, for example, to balance out that
01:29 40 cent difference.
01:30 But FEMA GO does not allow for that.
01:32 And so Iowa had to write a 40 cent check and send it back to FEMA.
01:37 FEMA cashed the check.
01:39 But the credit was not made to their account within FEMA GO.
01:41 So then every quarter since then they have received an RFI asking about the open project
01:46 and the payment needed for that 40 cent difference.
01:50 So -- Common sense would say that doesn't seem
01:52 right.
01:53 So we'll make sure we take that into account.
01:54 Absolutely.
01:55 So yeah, what's your plan to address that?
01:56 I mean, obviously, you know, you think about the administrative overhead to go after 40
01:58 cents here, you know, on an agency level.
02:01 Are these new bugs?
02:02 Have you heard about this from any other state or municipality?
02:06 I have not heard about that at all.
02:07 I have, you know, a number of our state directors certainly are not afraid to share with us
02:12 some of the frustrations that they have.
02:14 And we continue to work with them as we were rolling this out.
02:18 And now that it's fully enabled.
02:19 But this is a new one at that level.
02:21 And so I'll certainly take a look at that.
02:23 I offered to bring 40 cents from my tax check.
02:26 I understand.
02:27 To pay it off.
02:28 But they said they were handling it.
02:29 So I appreciate you committing to work with our team on that to alleviate user concerns
02:33 going forward.
02:34 Another area we talked about, I mean, I was going to experience severe weather today,
02:38 already is right now.
02:39 Last year we talked about the Next Generation Warning System grant program and what it provides
02:44 for resilience and security of public broadcasting systems when severe weather strikes.
02:49 Obviously that's essential, that communication for saving lives and helps to make sure that
02:53 we can get those alerts out.
02:55 One concern that I've had with that program is delays in deploying grant funding for the
03:00 Corporation of Public Broadcasting to administer those grants to local stations.
03:04 And so I think, you know, when you talk about process, if FEMA awarded the grant funding
03:08 in the first place to establish the program, why should CBP have to -- or CPB, rather,
03:14 now have to run every grant through FEMA granting authorities?
03:18 I think could there be a better solution there in terms of streamlining that process to make
03:21 sure that -- >> Yeah, I think absolutely.
03:23 I did get an update on this situation here recently.
03:26 And there are some challenges with how this program is being administered.
03:29 And so we are working hard right now to figure out the best way to streamline that.
03:34 Because being able to have the appropriate funding to enable the next generation warning
03:38 system is really critical to protecting our citizens.
03:42 So we are aware of the challenges and we are working on them.
03:46 And we're happy to provide you an update on where we're at.
03:48 >> I certainly appreciate that.
03:49 And obviously they know what they're doing in getting those resources out the door.
03:53 I think just streamlining it will help to make sure we can keep people safe as quickly
03:57 as possible.
03:58 It's critical to their role in civil defense and public safety.
04:01 So I think that's all the questions I have for this first round.
04:04 So Mr. Chairman, I'll yield back.